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NEWS: September 5, 2006
Bird’s Eye View of the News
Atila Sinke Guimarães
SPY-PRIESTS SCANDAL IN POLAND GROWS – Despite efforts of the Polish Catholic Hierarchy to evade the problem, more and more evidence is coming to light about priests who served as informers to the secret police – Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa – under the Communist regime.
Last July, Msgr. Michal Czajkowski, a prominent ecclesiastic and Church representative to the scholarly religious-social group Wiez, referring to his 24-years as an informant to Communist police, issued this statement to the newspapers: “I wish to apologize to everyone, including my relatives and ask forgiveness from those I harmed. My guilt is indisputable” (The Tablet, August 12, 2006, p. 10).
Last May, Msgr. Mieczyslaw Malinski, another prominent ecclesiastic and an old friend of John Paul II since their seminary days, was also denounced as an ex-police informer by the Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny. Malinski admitted having contacts with the secret police, but denied being a professional agent. Despite this denial, the newspaper identified Malinski as a long time agent with the codename “Delta” (ibid.).
Msgr. Malinski was so close to the Cardinal of Krakow that he wrote a book titled My Friend Karol Wojtyla, which is a common reference source of Wojtyla’s past and his thinking.
On June 17, 1983 during his trip to Poland, JPII met General Jaruzelski, head of the regime. ABC newspaper of Madrid (June 21, 1983) summarized his trip: "John Paul II did not go to Poland to tell his Polish fellows to rebel, but rather to pacify down. And he went to seek a more important role for the Church in Communist society." - United Press International |
In the 1990s many stories came to public knowledge of priests who were informers of the regime, even though they spoke against it in their sermons. Today, the National Remembrance Institute – an organ created to investigate Nazi and Communist crimes before 1989 and notify the public on their findings – estimates that one in 10 Catholic ecclesiastics had acted as informants for Communism in Poland.
The method of recruitment used by the secret police was to approach all clergy and select either those with ideological affinities or those “with particular needs or vulnerabilities” (The Tablet, ibid.). In straight language, the latter specification means those who can be bribed or have skeletons in their closets. The highest recruitment rates were recorded in the 1980s.
Recently Fr. Tadeusz Zalenski, a courageous chaplain of workers, promised to publish a list of another 28 clergy who had informed the police on the activities of John Paul II. When he expressed this intention, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz – the personal secretary of JPII until his death – forbade him to do so.
He warned the priest: “Throwing accusations at particular people after just a superficial examination of the material is highly irresponsible and harmful. I have not authorized you to deal with this matter. Instead, I have made it a task for competent people with historical knowledge and experience, who will guarantee a neutral examination of this delicate material (ibid.).
In June, however, when the mentioned commission presented its conclusions, there were no names or facts, but only vague ramblings on the “theological dimension of the problem.”
Also in June, the Bishops Conference issued a declaration that opposed revealing the names of spy-priests. The Bishops stated: “These documents were prepared by secret services hostile to the Church. There can be no proper disclosure without first uncovering the secret police structures and methods of activities” (ibid.).
We recognize this kind of talk. In 2002, when the scandal of pedophile priests in the United States was starting to blow up, we saw many Bishops making a similar maneuver to divert public attention. In the U.S. they called the media anti-clerical and claimed that exposing pedophile priests was an attempt by the Church’s enemies to destroy her. Actually, even though the media is mostly revolutionary, the practical result of those denunciations was positive in that they helped to heal the Church. Those revelations helped to restore some morality to the corrupt clergy, which had been covered up for by a complacent Hierarchy. Without those media reports, the Bishops and the Vatican most likely would still be covering up such crimes.
I think that the Polish Bishops are adopting an analogous procedure to cover up the widespread collaboration with Communism by their priests, Bishops, and probably also Cardinals. Yes, Cardinals. In Hungary, for example, the retired Cardinal Primate was found to be a collaborator with the regime. This fact was acknowledged by the Bishops themselves. Actually, “the Bishop’s Conference asked forgiveness after a list of clergy-agents was published on the Internet, a roster that included the name of the Church’s retired Primate, Cardinal Lazlo Paskai” (The Tablet, ibid., p. 11).
The bottom line of the spy-priests scandal in Poland, in my opinion, is to know if there were also Polish Cardinals who collaborated with Communism. What names do I suggest bearing in mind? Only three: Stephen Wysinzki, Josef Glemp, and Karol Wojtyla.
ALEXIS II SUPPORTS THE CUBAN DICTATOR – The Russian-schismatic patriarch Alexis II, a self-confessed KGB agent, recently provided another demonstration of his admiration for Communism. Indeed, Alexis sent Fidel Castro a telegram on the dictator’s 80th birthday that read: “Your life has been inseparably linked with the destiny of your motherland. You became its leader many years ago and took responsibility before God [sic] for ordering Cuban society and the life of the people. I wish you the strength granted by God to inspire people for solidarity in work and life by your personal example” (The Tablet, August 26, 2006, p. 31).
This telegram indicates that the Russian patriarch continues to support Communism just as he supported it to its last days in the USSR, and still supports it in present day Russia. It is a pity that the Vatican closes its eyes to this reality. Why? I leave the answer to the reader.
VOODOO PRIESTS – The adaptation of African Catholic priests to animism and fetishism is increasing greatly. Priests are frequently using practices of voodoo: the appeal to ancestral spirits, the recourse to mediums and possessed spirits, the use of its healing methods, divination, ritual magic and identification of enemies.
A woman in Benin, West Africa, falls into a trance as she is possessed by the devil during a voodoo religious ceremony - National Geographic online |
Who made this terrible accusation? Was it, per chance, some obsessive traditionalist who dislikes the adaptation of the Church to the false religions preached by Vatican II? No, it was not. The situation was described by the Bishops of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, in a joint pastoral letter issued August 11, 2006.
They depicted a picture of a large part of the clergy of their countries participating in the mentioned animist and fetishist practices. The African Bishops expressed “concern” and told the priests to “desist from the traditional healing practices involving spirits” (America, August 28, 2006, p. 8).
As everyone knows, the practices of animism and fetishism include devil worship. So, we have this paradox: Following a norm of Vatican II – adaptation of the liturgy to the cultures of different peoples – a significant part of the African clergy ends by directly or indirectly worshipping the Devil, the enemy par excellence of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Doubtless, a curious development…
Related Topics of Interest
The Pact of Metz
Wojtyla's Book Borrows Concepts From Marxism
Paul VI Receives Podgorny at the Vatican
Communist Dictator Tito Received by Paul VI
JPII Posing Under a Billboard of Communist Leaders
JPII Says Mass in Havana's Revolution Square
Resistance to the Vatican Ostpolitik
Disastrous Cost of the Vatican Ostpolitik with China
Pope Greeting a Voodoo 'Priest' in Assisi
Pope Greeting the Voodoo 'High Priest' in Benin
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